He (has) defended four people in court this week.

[Marika33]

Does any of these sentences mean/contain information that he succeeded in defending them = they were found innocent/not guilty?

1. He defended four people in court last week.
2. He defended four people in court this week.
3. He has defended four people in court this week.

 

[Rover_KE]

What's the context?

 

[Tarheel]

When a defense attorney represents somebody in court the goal is to keep that person out of jail or prison. If you say X defended Y in court the logical question is, "What was the result?"

 

[emsr2d2]

Does any of these sentences mean/contain information that he succeeded in defending them = they were found innocent/not guilty?

No. We have no idea what the outcomes of the four trials were.
If all four defendants were found not guilty, say "He successfully defended ...". If they were all found guilty, say "He unsuccessfully defended ...". If the verdicts were a mixture of guilty and not guilty, you'd have to add another sentence to explain that. All we know is that he was the defence lawyer for four defendants.

 

[Marika33]

What's the context?

Telling my friend how many people my other friend (has) defended this week/defended last week.

Does any of these sentences mean/contain information that he succeeded in defending them = they were found innocent/not guilty?

1. He defended four people in court last week.
2. He defended four people in court this week.
3. He has defended four people in court this week.

No. We have no idea what the outcomes of the four trials were.

Thank you! This helped a lot!

I thought the same about 1 and 2, but it seemed to me that 3, because of the perfect aspect, contained some sense of a result, a successful outcome. I'm glad I've learnt that's not the case.

 

[EngLearner]

He has successfully defended four people in court this week.

But the above sentence also makes sense, doesn't it? It suggests that the process is ongoing, and that he's defended four people so far, i.e. maybe he's going to defend two more people this week.

 

[emsr2d2]

The present perfect is appropriate in sentence 3 because it ends with "this week". The past simple is appropriate in sentence 1 because it ends with "last week".
I probably wouldn't use sentence 2.

 

[Marika33]

If all four defendants were found not guilty, say "He successfully defended ...". If they were all found guilty, say "He unsuccessfully defended ...". If the verdicts were a mixture of guilty and not guilty, you'd have to add another sentence to explain that. All we know is that he was the defence lawyer for four defendants.

Recently I've heard a man say a similar sentence but without those 'successfully defended' or 'unsuccessfully defended', he just said "He has defended [a number of people] in court this week". So, it seems like I don't have to add those "successfully/unsuccessfully" if the outcome of those trials doesn't matter, right?

 

[emsr2d2]

Recently, I've I heard a man say a similar sentence but without those 'successfully defended' or 'unsuccessfully defended'. He just said "He has defended [a number of people] in court this week". So, It seems like I don't have to add those "successfully/unsuccessfully" if the outcome of those trials doesn't matter, right?

Note my corrections above. You don't need to add either word if you're happy with the sentence giving no indication of the outcomes. I wouldn't say that the outcome "doesn't matter". It certainly matters to the defendant, the victim and the lawyers.

 

[jutfrank]

You must understand the crucial difference between sentence meaning and implied meaning.

a) He has defended four people in court this week.
b) He has successfully defended four people in court this week.

If you're asking about sentence meaning, only b) means that he did it successfully. Sentence a) does not mean that. However, if you're asking about implication, then you may get a different answer. Please be aware of these two different kinds of meaning.

 

[Marika33]

You must understand the crucial difference between sentence meaning and implied meaning.

I understand this difference.

You don't need to add either word if you're happy with the sentence giving no indication of the outcomes.

By analogy with defending four people in court, does this sentence also give no indication of the outcome/successful result?

This week I have trained four dogs to give paw.

 

[jutfrank]

Yes, right.

 

[5jj]

By analogy with defending four people in court, does this sentence also give no indication of the outcome/successful result?

This week I have trained four dogs to give paw.

This suggests to me that the dogs have been successfully trained. I have been training four dogs to give paw does not convey this suggestion..

 

[Tarheel]

@Marika33 Did you not like post #3?

(Others often say the same thing I have said, and I have noticed that they often use more words than I did to say the same thing.)

 

[Marika33]

This week I have trained four dogs to give paw.

This suggests to me that the dogs have been successfully trained. I have been training four dogs to give paw does not convey this suggestion..

OK, so if this happened, say, last week, that should be "I was training four dogs to give paw", correct?

This week I have trained four dogs to give paw. (= the dogs have been successfully trained)
This week I have been training four dogs to give paw. (= does not convey the suggestion above)

Last week I trained four dogs to give paw. (= the dogs were successfully trained)
Last week I was training four dogs to give paw. (= does not convey the suggestion above)

 

[jutfrank]

This week I have trained four dogs to give paw. (= the dogs have been successfully trained)

Read the thread again. If you're talking about sentence meaning, this does not mean that the training was successful, even if it is suggested.

 

[Marika33]

Read the thread again. If you're talking about sentence meaning, this does not mean that the training was successful, even if it is suggested.

Do you think all native speakers would agree with this? If so, it would make sense to me.
I'm always having difficulties with how to talk about activities in English when I don't want to stress if the action is successful.

• Yesterday we met for the first time in ten years. We were delighted to finally see each other. We had a wonderful evening together. We read books, watched excerpts from movies. And he also taught me how to play the piano.
  (I want to say about the activity of teaching, not about a successfully completed action)

Does this sentence also work as the one from #1 "He has defended four people in court this week" with no indication of the outcome?

 

[emsr2d2]

Do you think all native speakers would agree with this? If so, it would make sense to me.
I'm always having difficulties with how to talk about activities in English when I don't want to stress if the action is successful.

• Yesterday we met for the first time in ten years. We were delighted to finally see each other. We had a wonderful evening together. We read books, watched excerpts from movies, and he also taught me how to play the piano.
  (I want to say talk about the activity of teaching, not about a successfully completed action.)

Does this sentence also work as the one from #1 "He has defended four people in court this week" with no indication of the outcome?

I very much doubt he taught you how to play the piano in one evening (if he did, he's an incredible teacher!) He might have helped you learn the basics of piano playing. He might have given you some pointers. Teaching is usually an ongoing situation. There are exceptions, of course. Someone can teach you a few words of a foreign language in one evening, or teach you how to reboot your computer, but learning to play the piano is a much longer-term commitment.
"He has defended four people in court this week" gives no indication of the outcome. As we've already said, you'd need "successfully/unsuccessfully" before "defended" to indicate the outcome.

 

[Marika33]

I very much doubt he taught you how to play the piano in one evening (if he did, he's an incredible teacher!)

No, of course he didn't teach me how to play the piano completely in one evening, but this is what I said above:

I'm always having difficulties with how to talk about activities in English when I don't want to stress if the action is successful.

I want to talk about the activity of teaching, not about a successfully completed action.

Can this sentence be used in the sense of an activity (with no indication of the outcome) rather than in the sense of a successfully completed action?

• Yesterday we met for the first time in ten years. We were delighted to finally see each other. We had a wonderful evening together. We read books, watched excerpts from movies, and he taught me how to play the piano.

 

[5jj]

No.